Hanging the Windrider Banners: Not as Simple as You May Think

If you live in or around Menlo Park, there’s a good chance you’ve seen one of our Windrider banners hanging in downtown across Santa Cruz Ave. or on Middlefield Rd. You may think hanging such a sign would be an easy process, but it is, in fact, something that takes many months of planning!

On the first working day of each new year, Windrider volunteers, Kayla Skidmore and Judy Hyrne, head to the City of Menlo Park to try to get reservations to hang the signs on Santa Cruz Ave. weeks leading up to the Film Forum.

They then also have to coordinate with the City of Palo Alto for the placement over Embarcadero Rd., as well as coordinate with the Town of Atherton to hang the two banners on Middlefield Rd. at the Marsh Rd. intersection and in front of M-A High School at the Ravenswood intersection.

In addition to reserving the dates, permits are required for each of the cities. Menlo Park and Atherton have city employees that hang the banners, but Judy and Kayla have been tasked with hanging the banners in front of M-A High School and along the Embarcadero overpass. And if you’re familiar with those areas, it’s not an easy task!

Here are some fun videos of Judy and Kayla hanging the banners!

Last year, it was so windy that one of the banners wrapped around itself, so Judy coordinated with the city to get it fixed.

This year, Chris Rivera will be joining Judy and Kayla in coordinating with the cities and in hanging them.

Be sure to keep a look out for this year’s banners!

Palo Alto: Embarcadero Westbound goes up June 4th and Eastbound goes up June 17th

Menlo Park: Santa Cruz Ave. goes up on May 20th

MA High School goes up early June (exact date TBD)

Atherton: Marsh Rd. goes up May 27th-June 9th and then June 17th-June 30th